DHEC: Lake Wylie fish toxic in large amounts

Water experts warn some fish in Lake Wylie are only safe to eat in small amounts after largemouth bass taken from the lake tested positive for a cancer-causing compound.

South Carolina health officials announced Thursday largemouth bass from Lake Wylie and the Catawba River between the lake and Fishing Creek Reservoir should not be eaten more than once a week.

"People can still safely eat fish taken from the state's waters if they follow the fish consumption advisory guidelines," said David Wilson, chief of the state Department of Health and Environmental Control's Bureau of Water.

Public advisory signs will be posted at boat landings next month, Wilson said.

Also Thursday, North Carolina experts said no channel catfish should be eaten from Mountain Island Lake, the nearest upstream reservoir to Wylie.

The culprit is polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, which test results released Thursday show exceed levels for unlimited safe consumption.

The chlorine-based, synthetic compound was banned in the 1970s after the Environmental Protection Agency linked it to "cancer, as well as a variety of other adverse health effects" on the immune, reproductive, nervous and endocrine systems.

The "blanket advice" statewide is for pregnant women, women who might become pregnant or children to avoid eating more than one meal of freshwater fish from any South Carolina lake each week, and avoid eating any fish under a consumption advisory.

DHEC spokesman Adam Myrick said the largemouth bass is the only species tested for PCBs in the latest round on Lake Wylie. So, he said, he can't be sure species such as channel catfish are any safer if they come out of Lake Wylie than from Mountain Island Lake.

Only largemouth bass were tested for elevated PCBs because they are a large predatory fish. The next step, Myrick said, is to test other species. He did not know when more testing will be done or on which fish.

"We're going to go where the data sends us," he said.

PCBs testing

In late 2009, the EPA released data for 500 lakes nationwide. All lakes showed the presence of PCBs, despite the material not having been produced commercially in decades.

However, 17 percent of those lakes, including Lake Wateree downstream of Lake Wylie, exceeded federal water quality standards for PCBs.

South Carolina in May issued consumption advisories for Wateree, limiting largemouth bass to one meal per week, and both striped bass and blue catfish to one meal per month.

Chuck Gorman, director of the state's water monitoring, assessment and protection division, said in August that PCB levels in Wateree and Mountain Island Lake tests by the Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation were such a concern, the state needed to be "focusing more of our attention on the Catawba basin."

"It's quite alarming," Catawba Riverkeeper David Merryman said of Thursday's advisory, "not only for Lake Wylie but for the entire Catawba River basin in South Carolina.

"This is obviously a problem that has gone unchecked for quite some time."